No. 104. Rangoon. The Lake.

Photograph by Linnaeus Tripe, from a portfolio of 120 prints, with a view looking over the Royal Lake in what was to become Dalhousie Park, named after Lord Dalhousie, (Governor General of India 1848-56) at Rangoon (Yangon) in Burma (Myanmar). In 1855 a British mission was sent to King Mindon Min of Burma to negotiate a settlement regarding Pegu, annexed by the British after the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852. Linnaeus Tripe was the official photographer on this mission and his architectural and topographical views of the country form an important record. The construction of modern Rangoon was the work of years. After the taking of the town in 1852 the British distributed themselves among the larger buildings which were generally kyaungs. Much of the town had been destroyed but it now became the administrative centre of southern Burma which was under British control. The new rulers designed a new city on completely new lines. Dalhousie Park was conceived as a public amenity when Lord Dalhousie, much impressed by the beauty of the scenery in the area around the Royal Lakes ordered that it be reserved for public use. The original area covered about 400 acres but it was never really developed fully as a great open space as Dalhousie intended and as per the plans made by Mr. William Scott of the Calcutta Botanic Gardens in 1856, mainly due to lack of funds.This photograph was probably taken from the Signal Pagoda, with buildings of the infantry barracks in the foreground. Tripe wrote, 'To the east of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, a park is to be formed around it; nature has already half completed it'.